“Wow! The Fields Medal as a teenager! That’s incredible.”
Sri leaped for joy as if it were her own achievement. Cecilia made the sign of the cross and prayed to God, while Theo’s face was filled with smiles.
“It’s only the natural result. In fact, considering everything Seoha has achieved so far, it wouldn’t be strange for him to be awarded the Fields Medal twice. If the IMU hadn’t lost its mind, there’s no way they could have passed over Seoha.”
“But he’s still young, so they could tell him to receive it next time.”
At Sujeong’s words, silence fell.
“Ah… You can’t deny that. There is an age limit of forty, after all. The truth is, they often use excuses like that to give opportunities to candidates approaching forty.”
Theo’s expression turned bitter.
He knew the conservative workings of academia better than anyone. There were certainly people who would not welcome a genius from the East—not even twenty years old yet—turning the order of academia upside down.
Cecilia nodded as if she agreed.
“I heard the atmosphere within the IMU committee is extremely sensitive because of the Felix and Arthur incident. It’s understandable. The reputation of the mathematical community has fallen to the ground… There could well be calls to give this year’s Fields Medal to a proven candidate in order to revitalize the atmosphere.”
“Are you saying Seoha hasn’t been proven?”
Sujeong asked with a sullen expression.
“Seoha’s achievements have been concentrated in the past two or three years. There must still be quite a few scholars looking into Smale’s problem or minimum energy theory.”
“Huh? But that can’t happen.”
When Seoha showed an unusual hint of desire, all the team members’ eyes turned toward him. It was all the more surprising because he normally seemed detached from honor and money.
“What’s gotten into you? I thought you’d say it didn’t matter whether you received an award or not.”
When Sujeong asked teasingly, Seoha scratched his head shyly and said,
“Seoeun said she wanted a Fields Medal for her birthday…”
“Wow…”
“I wish I had an older brother like that.”
“It’s scary that this is a perfectly realistic thing to say.”
An award coveted by mathematicians all over the world had suddenly become the birthday present of an elementary school girl. Sujeong covered her mouth and chuckled softly.
‘Yoo Seoeun, nice!’
Seoha needed to develop a few more worldly desires.
To Sujeong, he seemed precarious. Like Perelman, who had proven the Poincaré conjecture and then disappeared, rejecting wealth and fame.
The fact that the only thing Seoha desired was his younger sister’s birthday present was strangely reassuring to Sujeong, yet also saddening.
‘What else should I tell him about?’
Look forward to it, Seoeun!
There are still plenty of wonderful things a mathematician can receive.
She clenched her fist lightly and struck a fighting pose.
***
“Ah, won’t some author with a fresh manuscript come knocking on our door of their own accord?”
Park Sangwon, the president of Haim Books, muttered to himself as he glared at the blank monitor.
It was an age in which paper books were dying. But when it came to a book of value, people were still prepared to open their wallets.
“Last year and the year before were so warm.”
The essay written by Miyeong, *I Never Intended to Raise a Genius*, had been an unprecedented hit. They had expected many parents to buy it, but once the book was released, its impact far exceeded their imagination.
Every time Seoha appeared on the news, the book’s sales index rose vertically. Office workers exhausted by their daily lives sought out the book out of pure curiosity, while students approached it with the adoration of people gazing at the protagonist of a comic book.
But that was all in the past. It would be fair to say that everyone who was going to buy it had already done so.
“And there’s still no word about author Yun Miyeong’s next book.”
Even if she was not publishing a book right away, maintaining his relationship with the author was important.
He was sending Miyeong gifts every holiday, without fail, not to mention on her birthday.
“Did I build the office building too soon?”
It was only a small building, but building it on some of Seoul’s most expensive land had been the cause of his troubles. The interest on the loans he had recklessly taken out was tightening around his throat. Even the major authors he had trusted were continually putting off their manuscripts.
With hollow eyes, he refreshed the page. He was browsing an online community to keep up with the trends. As he scrolled down with a heavy heart, one post made his eyes flash.
[Looks like Yoo Seoha’s younger sister is good at studying too.]
—What good deeds did their parents do in a past life? They live in Boston, and apparently their daughter placed first in the Massachusetts state mathematics competition.
ㄴReally? I’ve never seen an article about it.
ㄴBelieve it or not.
ㄴIt’s not a national competition, just a state competition. I guess nobody would care unless it were an international competition.
ㄴSo I guess brains account for ninety percent of academic success?
ㄴI’m sick of the theory that genes explain everything. Shin Woohyun said you shouldn’t blame your brains when applying to college. Even if you’re average, getting into Seoul National University isn’t a problem.
ㄴIsn’t what comes after that the important part? In the world of true geniuses, innate intelligence is everythingㅋㅋㅋㅋ
“Huh? Oh!”
Park’s mind began to race.
If Seoha had been the only one, it could have been dismissed as a miracle born by chance. But if his younger sister was showing signs of genius as well, that changed everything.
It was evidence that either it was genetic, or that there truly existed some special environment known only to their parents. Even if it was the former, it did not matter. Environmental factors must have played a definite role as well.
“This is it!”
But verifying the facts came first.
He picked up his phone with trembling hands. After a few rings, she answered.
—Hello. President Park, what brings you here?
“Author Yun! How have you been? Well, the thing is, I just saw a post on an online community. There’s a rumor going around that your daughter placed first in a mathematics competition. Is it true?”
Miyeong’s laughter came through the receiver.
—Oh my! That’s already become a rumor? The school simply told us to let her participate, so we sent her. I suppose she was lucky.
Bingo!
President Park clenched his fist. He could go and verify the details in person. After managing to arrange a meal with Miyeong, he boarded a flight to the United States the very next day.
***
“Why couldn’t it be gold? What do you think, Justin?”
Seoeun spoke to the stuffed toy lying on the sofa.
Miyeong shook her head as she watched her daughter. Her body had grown, but Seoeun still carried the stuffed toy Seoha had given her wherever she went.
She had been so shocked when her daughter suddenly announced that she wanted to study mathematics. She had thought it would last only a few days, but she had been mistaken. Watching the siblings happily study together every night was a joy. Still, she had not expected Seoeun to become this absorbed in mathematics.
As if something had come over her, her daughter still wore the name tag that read ‘Special Assistant Yoo Seoeun’ every single day.
“Mom thinks that medal is pretty cool too.”
Another award Seoeun had received had been added to the cabinet in the living room.
Once she started studying, her daughter began overtaking gifted students in the upper grades at a frightening pace. Then, before long, she had even placed first in a state competition open to all elementary school students.
Was it really a genetic blessing, as people said? It couldn’t be. Neither she nor her husband had been particularly gifted academically.
“Hmph, no! That one’s just plastic with paint on it! The medal Oppa gave me was real silver. It was plated on the outside, though.”
“Good grief.”
Old memories came flooding back.
When the siblings had filled a bowl with water, Miyeong had wondered what they were doing, only to learn that they were figuring out the density of metal. Naturally, they had soaked the living-room floor. The kitchen scale had gotten wet too and broken down.
Watching the siblings put Archimedes’ Eureka into practice had left her clutching the back of her neck. Perhaps that was when it began. Her daughter had developed an unusually strong fondness for gold and silver.
Knock, knock!
Miyeong glanced at the clock. It was time for their appointment.
When she opened the door, she saw a radiant bouquet of flowers, and the even more radiant face of President Park Sangwon smiling behind it. As if he had forgotten the fatigue of his long flight, he bowed with the brightest expression imaginable.
“It’s been a long time, Author Yun! The air in Boston is truly sweet.”
“P-Please, come in.”
Miyeong let him into the house with a somewhat burdened expression.
But that lasted only a moment. Before long, the living room was filled with laughter. Bringing up the main subject right away was for amateurs. Thanks to his dazzling icebreaking skills, even Seoeun, who was shy around strangers, dropped her guard in an instant.
‘I’ll show them the power of a father of three daughters!’
“Wow! What a wonderful stuffed toy! Does it have a name?”
Seoeun’s face relaxed as though she herself had been praised.
“Yes! His name is Justin, and Oppa made him for me. His tail moves too. Would you like to see?”
His eyes lingered briefly on Seoeun’s name tag.
Before he knew it, Miyeong had been pushed into the background, and President Park spent a long time playing with the excited Seoeun. As he joined in the games she suggested, he could not hide his astonishment.
‘That’s prime factorization, isn’t it? She’s been doing this since she was a baby?’
‘Could this really be true? She plays by calling out four-digit primes? She’s already started on five-digit ones?’
‘She has to say in advance how many moves it’ll take to solve the cube? Her brother doesn’t accept anything unless it’s the shortest route?’
He would never have believed it if he had not seen it with his own eyes.
The tiny child played with numbers as naturally as she breathed. As the finishing touch, Seoeun correctly matched all thirty cards laid out before her, and President Park had to cover his mouth with both hands like a teenage girl.
“My God.”
Was this talent? Or education?
There was no doubt it was both. But compared to Seoha’s inhuman genius, which he had developed entirely on his own, this child’s growth story would clearly possess far greater commercial explosive power.
And the person who had designed all of this from the very beginning was none other than Yoo Seoha. Dozens of titles capable of capturing readers’ attention sprang into his mind.
“Author Yuuun! You absolutely have to do this!”
President Park suddenly sprang to his feet and launched into an impassioned speech without even realizing it. But Miyeong only looked troubled.
“Seoeun’s education was handled entirely by Seoha. To be honest, I thought he was simply playing with her in a fun way. Seoeun didn’t seem to think of it as studying, either.
So even if you’re asking me to write about it…”
“It… It can be written in the form of a journal. Please describe warmly, from a mother’s perspective, what the siblings played at from an early age. That alone would be enough. Some portions could even be written by Seoeun herself. Ideally, Seoha would participate in writing it, but…”
“That won’t do!”
At the mention of her son, Miyeong’s expression hardened.
Realizing his mistake, President Park hurriedly tried to change the subject.
“But how did your daughter manage to place first in a state competition, of all things? It doesn’t seem like she had received any proper training in mathematics…”
He had already completed his preliminary research before coming to the United States.
Massachusetts was famous for its intense educational zeal. Not only was it home to a string of elite schools such as Phillips Andover and Lexington, it was also the region that had produced the most winners of the AMC, the American Mathematics Competitions, the most prestigious mathematics competition in the United States.
And she had placed first here?
It was practically the same as placing first in the entire country.
“Ah, about that.”
Miyeong smiled faintly and gestured with her eyes toward the book Seoeun was reading.
“She only started learning properly a little while ago. It turns out Seoha made the textbooks his sister would use himself. Children are so adorable…”
Park could barely hear the rest.
Seoeun, whose interest had faded, was lying on her stomach on the sofa, reading a book. He had not paid much attention to it because of its colorful illustrations, but that book had been made personally by Yoo Seoha for his younger sister. The very book that had turned her into a state champion in such a short time!
A loud voice escaped him before he knew it.
“C-Could we publish that?”
Forgetting even to ask permission, he approached the sofa.
There was no way this would fail to sell. It might even sell better than the standard textbooks. No—it was certain to do so.
His eyes remained fixed on Seoeun’s book.
“Huh?”
Seoeun quietly rose and retreated as if to flee.
She held the book tightly against her chest, as though determined never to let anyone take it away.
‘But Oppa made this book for me.’
Seoeun’s lips trembled, and tears began to fall.
“Waaaahhhh—”
She bit her lower lip tightly and tried to hold it in, but the sorrow welling up inside her was too great, and Seoeun could not stop crying.